The Long Reach Excavator is mainly used to demolish buildings, or at mining sites to break ores located deep down a hole, and to do sand excavations.
It is preferably used for operations on slopes or a terrain with uniquely special geographical features.
What Are The Special Features Of A Long Reach Backhoe Excavator?
The equipment comes in different sizes of ranges. Long booms and arms are the most visible physical features of these machines. Most machines of this type have large tanks and stability is a paramount quality to consider.
They are designed and built with long booms and arms to do specific and special tasks.
The machines have massive dig envelopes with large radii of curvature, reaching very high heights and large depths during operations. Moreover, they are still applicable for heavy duty.
This quality requires the machine parts to have outstanding strength and stability.
Stability is promoted in these machines by the reinforcement of heavy-duty undercarriages to provide rugged platforms so that long reach is enhanced effectively.
The strength of the boom and arm material is of great importance for long-reach operations.
Much stress on the booms will reduce quality and durability and the flow control valves in the boom is essential to prevent abrupt movements
These type of machines have small swing radius and low folding booms that enable efficient work around obstacles.
Large fuel tanks and dippers provide optimized efficiency and easy transportation.
The equipment is usually installed with a special electrical circuit system that controls the size of the operation radius moved by the boom to maintain stability.
Uses Of A Long-Reach Excavator :
These special machines are mainly used in environments with adverse conditions in terrain both on land and water.
They are applicable on the river banks, mining sites, quarrying, and generally sloping terrain.
On the dry land, they are mainly used to demolish tall buildings.
During the demolition of very tall structures, the radius moves by the boom and the attachments used for demolition must be maintained to the recommended specifications that match the weight of the machine.
They are also used to clean the river bed and dredge water ports and harbors, river channels or a watercourse, and deep tunnels.
They can be used when there is a need to temporarily change the river course or size of the cross profile after determining the extent to which the hard river bed rocks extend from the river banks.
On mining sites, the equipment can be used to break mineral ores and to extract the mined ores to the surface without much complications.
The specially designed long booms are also applicable during light excavation activities and to finishing on slopes.
How Far Does A Long-Reach Excavator Reach?
How far a demolition equipment can reach is determined by several factors such as the attachment used and the ground pressure and stability.
Long-reach excavators can reach as far as their sizes dictate.
Typically, an excavator could reach 15m high or 13m deep and 18m on the ground level.
Also, there is the specified loading height and cutting or digging height and depths.
All the feature and operation dimensions are subject to variations depending on the attachment and size of the bucket used.
340F LRE and 352F LRE are typical hydraulic excavators which are produced by Caterpillar Inc.
Which Is The Best Long-Reach Backhoe Excavator?
Caterpillar, Kobelco, JCB, and Volvo are top companies that produce special-purpose heavy equipment in the world.
All the companies produce a range of demolition equipment for tall buildings and structures that come in different sizes and weight specifications.
Caterpillar boasts its demolition equipment, especially the 340F LRE and 352F LRE which are hydraulic excavators.
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These demolition equipment have the following unique features:
- They are very much fuel efficient. Their engines have unique emissions solutions that work behind the notice to prevent any interruptions to the operator.
- The three power modes help you to save fuel consumption, and the speed control of the engine automatically reduces the number of revolutions per minute when the machine does not need much speed, this helps to save fuel.
- They are easy to operate, convenient with wide seats, and an LCD monitor that is easy to navigate. The monitor has 42 programmable languages for diversity in operation.
- The machines are very reliable with optimized productivity. In the heavy lift mode, the pressure of the system is increased so as to reduce the engine speed and make it more controllable. This ensures proper productivity.
- They are easy to service. They also have low operation costs because they are made of robust and durable materials.
Companies With Popular Long-Reach Excavators :
Kobelco has the SK210LC LR, SK260LC LR, and SK300LC LR brands. The maximum distance reached by these brands are 15.24m, 18.288m, and 18.898m respectively.
JCB characteristically produces the following brands of machines with long booms for special tasks: 86C-1 LR, JS145 LR, JS180 LR, JS220 LR, JS260 LR, JS330 LR, JS370 LR. These ranges of operating weight are from 9.5 to 42 tonnes.
Brands by JCB have massive dig envelopes with heavy-duty undercarriages to provide much stability.
Volvo CE has its largest machine in this sector of specialty in operations, the EC750E HR. It was basically a crawler excavator but later improvised with engineering techniques to a high-reach excavator.
Volvo also has other typical brands for this heavy equipment such as :
The Volvo EC350EL and Volvo EC380EL come in two ranges, the EC350E, EC380EL and EC380ELR. They have different reaches depending on the type of boom selected for use.
Hitachi also manufactures the ZAXIS-5G series super long front. They come in ranges including ZX200LC-5G TYPE H15, ZX330LC-5G TYPE H18, and ZX330LC-5G TYPE H22.
Which Excavator Has The Longest Reach?
Volvo has a masterpiece of equipment for long-reach applications – The EC750E HR.
This excavator has a special boom and arm arrangement that enables it to produce the highest reach.
Its maximum height reached is 38m, and on a horizontal ground, it extends to approximately 22 meters.
HR stands for “High Reach”.
JCB produced their JS370 LR brand range that has the longest reach with the simplest normal boom and arm arrangements.
It has a simple single boom as compared to the EC750E HR which has complex boom arrangements, however, on a horizontal ground, it reaches a maximum distance of 21m.
How To Multipurpose With A Long-Reach Digger?
How to use special machines with functionally designed booms for the usual purposes designated for normal excavators is an essential way of diversifying your business and optimizing your productivity and outcome.
Due to stability factors and strength, such equipment is not capable of performing certain tasks with its special boom arrangements.
The Volvo product, Volvo EC480E HR is quite spectacular. This equipment can be disassembled and reassembled in about 45 minutes to realize another operation.
You can use it for high-reach purposes as well as convert it into earthmoving equipment.
The masterpiece product by Volvo CE, the EC750E HR can also be used at different working conditions to realize the operations of the common excavator that has the simple normal boom arrangements.
Similarly, Komatsu has a multipurpose boom arrangement for demolition equipment that can dig up to 20m.
If you have a short boom, you can install the multipurpose boom from Komatsu to ensure you use less to produce more.
Multipurpose equipment lowers the cost of production.
However, always stick to the specifications on the manual to ensure you don’t strain the engine and transmission system so as to maintain the long life of the equipment.
What Is The Price Of A Long-Reach Excavator?
These special machines can be owned by purchase, leasing, or renting.
The most popularly purchased heavy equipment falls in the range of weight from 44000 lbs to 66000 lbs.
When making purchases, both new and used heavy construction equipment are sold in the market.
An excavator of the popular range of weight would cost from $100 000 to $500 000.
However, most equipment designed for high reach uses and other related special purposes fall in the highest range of weight ranging from 30 tons to 40 tons and new machines would cost from $200 000 to $400 000.
What Is The Price Of A Long-Reach Excavator In India?
Depending on the condition of the equipment, new construction equipment would cost in the range from Rs 90,00,000 per piece to Rs 70,00,000 (7 million Indian Rupees) per piece.
In United States Dollar, this is approximately $12 111 to $94, 198
For the special equipment, the average market price in India is Rs70 Lakh per unit. That is approximately $62, 490.
What Are Safety Measures When Using A Long Reach Digger?
This type of construction equipment is a highly versatile heavy equipment in the construction industry.
It is very important to ensure safety during operations with this machine while considering the following measures.
- The first principle safety measure is to read the manufacturer’s manual to know everything about the machine.
- Observe to understand all safety symbols pinned on the body parts to get more informed.
- A fundamental safety measure when using the equipment is to ensure stability. Always land the machine on a flat surface and ensure the surface has strong rocks to hold the machine during operations.
- Train with the machine on flat surfaces to know how it may behave during actual operations, especially when you are a first-timer.
- Put on protective gears to block stray falling objects. Long reach excavator does tasks from quite a distance far away from structures demolished but some objects may reach you.
Long Reach Excavator in Action
How To Improve The Performance Of A Long-Reach Digger
The performance of the machine is an important aspect of operation.
In the operation of this special-purpose construction equipment, consider the following specific factors;
- Choose the correct machine with relevance to the attachments that you are likely to use.
- Use the proper guide, read, and understand it when working in more special places like underwater.
- Conduct a routine maintenance practice as indicated in the manual.
- Use only oil lubricants that are recommended by the manufacturer.
- Learn how to multipurpose with the long-reach excavator to save time and cost of production.
